Continuous reactors are perceived to be inflexible and less agile in process modifications. Many multi-product manufacturing therefore prefer batch processing. Batch processing plants are typically arranged to operate in a batch mode with necessary requirement of additional large batch tanks. Product quality in batch processing may vary from batch to batch when compared to the same process being carried out in a continuous operation. Furthermore, the proportional increase in operating and maintenance costs combined with the other shortcomings of batch processing indicate the need for a more flexible and efficient alternative.
Continuous flow reactor is being used over decades. However the nature of the reactor has largely been like a simple tubular reactor with either straight (U.S. Pat. No. 7,018,591, US20030055300), tubes connected using 180° bends (U.S. Pat. No. 5,779,994, U.S. Pat. No. 3,773,470, U.S. Pat. No. 3,148,037), the helical, lamellar or spiral configuration. A few configurations with inserts have also been used (US20100040190). The purpose of using these configurations was either to achieve the desired residence time and/or to achieve the desired residence time with reduced axial dispersion by using the geometrical variations to perturb the flow to enhance local mixing. However these configurations do not bring out a significant impact on the enhancement of reactor performance.
There exists a need for an efficient system for carrying out processes in a simple, quick and reconfigurable manner.